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Schooling

Primary and secondary education

The Australian schoolyear runs from end of January till Christmas. There are usually 12 weeks of holiday per year (although for private schools this may be more). Uniforms are custom at all Australian schools. Some schools teach only boys or girls.

The Australian school system is divided in public and private schools both for primary and secondary schools. The difference being the supposed level of education your child receives as well as the school fees that are due. If you are a permanent resident or an Australian citizen, public schools are free. Some of the cost you will incur are costs for uniforms and extra-curricular activities. Many schools have a very involved group of parents that organise activties such as raffles in order to raise money for the school. It is expected that during the year you will volunteer to help out at school for one activity or another. If you are a temporary resident, schoolfees will be around $5000,- per child per schoolyear.

You can have very interesting and lively discussions with people sending their kids to private schools because they take the education of their kids extremely serious. Private schoolfees can be very high and it varies per school. In Australian society it can be very important which school you go to for your future because of the people you will get to know. However, sending your child to one of these schools, is by no means a guarantee for success and there are many children who do just as well going to public schools.

For secondary education there is another option, the socalled selective schools. These are public schools but you need to have a certain level to be accepted.

Whereas in the Netherlands we are used to schools being basically the same in terms of the level of education a child gets, in Australia this varies from school to school. For public schools, you often need to live within a certain radius of the school to be able to attend. If you have a certain school in mind where you want your child to go, this may influence where you need to live. To know more about how well a school is performing, please click on the link.

There is the possibilty to continue or start your child's Dutch lessons at the Dutch school the Kangoeroe in Sydney. The school operates 5 days a week from 16h00 to 18h00 at a different location every day. For more information check out the website.

LanguageOne Perth provides a curriculum in Dutch language and culture for students from 2 years and 9 months until 18 years of age. More information, click here.

Tertiary education

There are many good universities in the country, located in the big cities. For more information click here.

If you have anything to add to the information above, please send an email to office@dutchlink.com.au.